>Lenient Jail Terms For MPs

>Following recent posts highlighting the leniency of jail terms (up to twelve months max) for MPs tried and convicted of offences uncovered in the expenses scandal, an article in the FT quotes Claire Shaw, a lawyer at Pinsent Masons and a former Serious Fraud Office prosecutor, as saying it was “hilarious” to see rules floated that would impose lower sanctions on parliamentarians than on the person on the street. She said: “They shouldn’t be passing a special act for MPs which has a tenth of the penalty the wider public face.”

The criticism is an embarrassing counterpoint to government attempts to clamp down on business and consumer fraudsters, by raising the maximum jail term for the offence from seven years to 10 years.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."